


Imperfections

by TenSpencerRiedPlease



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Aromantic Tony Stark, Cats, Humor, I Don't Even Know, If I had to suffer so do you!, No Plot/Plotless, Romcom Level Hijinks, Welcome to Rare Pairing Hell
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-21
Updated: 2016-06-02
Packaged: 2018-06-09 22:50:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6927148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TenSpencerRiedPlease/pseuds/TenSpencerRiedPlease
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Your name is T’Challa,” Tony says just to clarify, to make sure he was getting this fucking disaster right. </p><p>T’Challa raises an eyebrow, “it is. You seem surprised,” he notes, eyes scanning over Tony. Yeah, because his tattoo, which happened to be T’Challa by chance, also happened to be this guy’s name.</p><p>That was made worse by the fact that his tattoo was just that, a <em>tattoo</em>, not a soul mark. Well, shit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> **Promt** Soulmate AU where everyone is born with the name of their soulmate tattooed on their body. Person A is aromantic, hence was born without a tattoo, so they tattoo a random name on their wrist in order to fit in. One day, Person A meets Person B. They have each other’s names tattooed, so everyone, including Person B, assumes they’re soulmates and Person A has no clue how to tell them that their tattoo is a fake.
> 
> Alright so I don't know whether I want to make this into an actual story or leave it as a oneshot because it's _sort_ of resolved but I could also carry it out into an actual story so we will see. Mostly I'm worried because I already have one story on the go and summer school, which is a lot of work in itself. But we'll see because I love this pairing. 
> 
> Also Victor Shade is Vision's name in the comics so that's who Victor is (at least that's one Vision, there are others ). I also took a few liberties with T'Challa's culture, I did some research but nothing super extensive, but it all should be at least somewhat in line with comic canon.

Tony’s first though is ‘fuck’ because this was never meant to happen. First off who even _had_ the name T’Challa? The reason he _got_ T’Challa tattooed onto his wrist was because that is a purposefully uncommon name. The only reason Tony even knew that name was a thing was because he had looked up extremely uncommon American names. Of course his stupid ass hadn’t factored international students into his search otherwise he would have tattooed Broomhilda or something else equally embarrassing onto his arm to avoid situations precisely like this.

“Your name is T’Challa,” Tony says just to clarify, to make sure he was getting this fucking disaster right.

T’Challa raises an eyebrow, “it is. You seem surprised,” he notes, eyes scanning over Tony. Yeah, because his tattoo, which happened to be T’Challa by chance, also happened to be this guy’s name. And that wouldn’t be bad, Tony thinks, if T’Challa’s wrist didn’t have ‘Anthony’ written on it in elegant script, clearly indicating that they’re soul mates.

“I… uh… yeah, pretty surprised,” he says for lack of anything better. Fuck yeah he was surprised he had a soul mate when he’s been _faking having a soul mate for years_. He figured out young, probably younger than most because of his genius intellect and forced maturity, that he was like one hundred percent aromantic. When he had still been a kid in college he thought his disinterest was that, being young and inexperienced, but as he got older and he matured some the romance thing was still just as lost on him. He figured if he had a sexual awakening the whole romance thing would come to but no, he still remained heavily disinterested in and sometimes actively irritated with anything romantic.

That, unfortunately for T’Challa, included soul mates. People kept harassing him and harassing him about his soul mark, which they all thought he kept covered, and he was happy to let them make excuses. The truth was he hadn’t had one, never had, and by the time he reached seventeen he was fucking annoyed with people asking so he did some deep internet research for a fake tattoo. T’Challa had been the name he went with because it just seemed so unlikely he’d ever meet someone with the name T’Challa. Well here he was and the joke was on him because clearly he was fucking wrong and now everyone thought his would-be lab partner was his fucking soul mate.

Steve looked ready to start snapping wedding pictures, Bucky, Sam, and Nat probably already _had_ pictures, and Bruce looked as confused as Tony. Well that made two of them. Maybe three if the quizzical look on T’Challa’s face was any indication. “I do not see _why_ you would be surprised,” he notes, “are soul mates not popular in America?”

Nat and Steve let all small squeals and he resolves to never _ever_ let them roam the lab ever again. Tony sighs, “no, soul mates are plenty popular here,” unfortunately, “I’m just… not to the type of soul mate a person would want. Also T’Challa is very uncommon name, I assumed you were like… dead or something.” Bruce makes a face like he just swallowed a sour lemon and Tony inwardly shrinks in on himself because if socially awkward _Bruce_ found that awful T’Challa probably just lost all hope at all in him. He didn’t even know why he cared when T’Challa was a fake soul mate. Clearly this guy had the wrong Anthony.

T’Challa tilts his head to the side, “you assumed I was dead before it occurred to you that perhaps I was not from America?” He shakes his head, “Americans,” he mumbles.

Tony snorts, “yeah, we’re… really weird I guess,” he says awkwardly.

“No, Tony’s just really weird, the rest of us are perfectly normal so if you’re not satisfied with your current soul mate I be _very_ pleased to replace him,” Natasha says, grinning at T’Challa like she was about to eat the poor guy. Bucky and Sam ‘ _oooooo_ ’ behind her like perfectly mature humans. And they claimed Tony was an actual teenager.

T’Challa looks hilariously affronted by this suggestion, “is it normal to proposition someone with their soul mate standing _right there_?” he asks, hand pressed to his heart like Natasha offended his delicate sensibilities.

“In general? No. For Natasha? There hasn’t been a soul mate she hasn’t propositioned yet,” Tony says. It was tradition now, she had to. Ever since Bucky met Sam and they realized they were each other’s One and Only just to have Natasha swoop in to try and pick Sam up. Then there was Steve and Peggy in which Nat tried to pick Peggy up, and then Victor and Wanda in which she tried to pick them _both_ up because she must have been feeling particularly randy that day.

“She hasn’t hit on Betty,” Bruce points out.

“Not with you there,” Natasha counters. T’Challa looks horrified and at this point he wasn’t even sure what he was horrified _at_ , Natasha propositioning him in front of Tony or Natasha propositioning _everyone’s_ soul mates.

She considers the situation for a moment, “I think I’ll go now, before I offend T’Challa more,” she says somewhat awkwardly.

“That would be best,” T’Challa says, eyeing her wearily. She goes but not before telling Bruce that Betty totally would have said yes if it wasn’t for her having met Bruce the week before. Bruce looks like someone just told him they confirmed String Theory he was so stunned. “Are you alright?” T’Challa asks and it takes Tony a moment to realize T’Challa was talking to him.

“Oh, me? Yeah, I’m fine, that’s just Nat being Nat it’s no big deal,” he rambles, awkwardly waving his hand to dismiss the situation. Oh lord. How the hell was he supposed to tell this dude his tattoo wasn’t even _legit_ when he already worried about Tony’s feelings? All two of them.

*

Tony was strange and kept even stranger friends but T’Challa liked him. For one he was brilliant and that was already a bonus in T’Challa’s books. Sometimes conversation was dull with people who did not have the mental capacity to keep up and Tony kept up just fine, and sometimes even surpassed him. It was refreshing to have someone so like-minded around, even if his focus in engineering was far stronger than T’Challa’s own. Bruce was also pleasant to talk to but he was quiet and introverted, very much the opposite of Tony, who talked to his _machines_ he craved interaction so much.

Regardless of Tony’s strange habits he should know if he was worthy of being T’Challa’s soul mate and thus he brought his cat to the lab. She would know. He releases the cat and returns to his work to let his companion do her work.

As soon as Tony spots the cat he looks enthused but he doesn’t start towards the animal. Already he was doing better than most of his country. Tony bends down, getting closer to the cat’s level and T’Challa silently approves of this too because this was proper procedure. The cat looks unsure so Tony wiggles his fingers and makes some cooing noises, which was not where he should have went but cats were pets here T’Challa reminds himself. In his own home country they were gods and the cat chose the owner rather than the other way around. America had been one hell of a culture shock in that respect. He probably should have remembered that from his Oxford days but he always seemed to forget after a visit home.

Slowly the cat approaches and instead of hauling off and trying to pet the cat Tony lets the cat sniff him, get confortable with his presence, and only when the cat nudges his hand does he stoke the cat’s fur. Perfect, he knew how to ask for consent from the animal rather than assuming consent was freely given. It doesn’t take long for the cat to get confortable, purring away as Tony cooed at her.

“Meatloaf likes you,” he comments after a few minutes of listening to Tony’s grating baby talk to his precious cat. _Pretty girl_ , honestly he thought Tony could come up with something less insulting than that. But cats were pets here, that was likely customary. He disliked American cat customs.

Tony frowns at the cat, who head butts his hand when he stops petting her, clearly irritated with the lack of attention. “You named your cat meatloaf?” he asks and resumes petting the cat.

“She looks like a meatloaf,” he says logically. She was small, mostly black, and had a number of orange spots with a dash of white on her too; she looked like a meatloaf but in cat form.

“I… I guess, I mean I like my meatloaves hairless but hey, I’ll take it I guess,” he says, scratching the cat’s ears. Meatloaf responds well, thankfully. He had been worried because he hadn’t been born with a tattoo, which he took to assume he had no soul mate, but when he was seventeen he woke up with the name ‘Anthony’ tattooed on the inside of his wrist. Within the week Meatloaf had moved into his dorm and he took that as a blessing for his new soul mate.

He laughs lightly at the joke, “Meatloaf doesn’t tend to care for people,” he says. She was a very particular animal and in a land of dog people she hated it. He did not blame her for that.

“Then she has standards,” Tony says, cooing at the cat as she leans into his hand. The cooing thing has got to go, but he’ll deal with that later.

“I take it that you are a cat person?” he says, asks really. Hoped was actually more accurate.

“Duh, Cat’s are great. I mean dogs are okay I guess but I am one hundred percent a cat person.” T’Challa isn’t sure what deity to thank for that but he was happy that Tony had not fallen victim to the dog people of his country.

“Thank goodness. My people, we worship cats and I get to America to find that you all worship _dogs_. That would not be so bad if people here did not insist on assuming dog behavior is synonymous with cat behavior only to become upset when cats do not behave as dogs. It’s almost as if they are a completely different species,” he says sarcastically. He was of the opinion that if Americans stopped assuming cats were dogs they might learn to appreciate cats as _cats_ not smaller dogs with whiskers. “If you did not like cats it would have been deal breaker, I am sorry,” he says, shaking his head.

Tony takes this well thankfully and he laughs, “ahh, the cat lover in the dog lover world. We have it hard,” he says dramatically, “just wait ‘till Bruce comes back, then we’ll have a dog person argue with.” He looks happy about this but T’Challa has resolved to like Bruce less now.

“Is he the type of dog person to dislike cats because he assumes cats are dogs and becomes surprised that cats are, in fact, cats?” he asks.

“Nah, I just think he dislikes cats because he got dropped on his head as a baby or something,” Tony says.

“Then I may still like him yet.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This went from cute to angsty to cute. I have no clue how. But alas here we are.

Natasha all but slithers up, “have you seen Thor’s extremely NSFW Snapchat?” she asks with a creepy grin on her face. Tony resolves to find out how she and Clint kept getting into the lab so he could stop this madness.

“No? Should I have seen Thor’s Snapchat?” he asks. He only knew Thor via Loki and honestly that was not a positive association. At least Loki had confirmed that yes, Tony was very much aromantic. And then poor Pepper for good measure, he really did owe her an apology for the _disaster_ of a relationship they had.

“Of course you should have seen Thor’s Snapchat, aren’t you supposed to be some super slut or something? You’re giving us a bad name,” she says.

“Since when have you been a super slut?” As far has he knew Natasha only did the flirting bit, not the sex bit not that she didn’t have one hell of a reputation. That reputation was that people died between her thighs but Tony has only seen minimal evidence for that.

“Since forever, keep up with the rumor mill Stark, they have a lot to say about you too. Now, _now_ , to the dick pics!” she says excitedly. Bruce is giving him odd looks across the lab but what the hell was he supposed to do about Nat being Nat? Natasha all but shoves her phone up his nose so he takes the damn thing mostly with then intention of pleasing Natasha but _damn_ , Thor was _hot_.

“What’s his Snapchat?” Tony asks, eyes scanning over Thor’s impressively muscled body and licking his lips. He wouldn’t mind waking up to freshly worked out photos of this guy mostly undressed, yes _please_. “Natasha, Snapchat?” he asks, raising an eyebrow at her but she was looking above his head at something. He turns and finds T’Challa looking confused, “my eyes have simply been a victim of Natasha’s slutty ways,” he blurts for lack of something better.

“Oh fuck you, they were not, your eyes are not innocent in this!” Natasha says, snatching her phone back. Aww.

“Were so,” he says, maintaining his innocence.

T’Challa turns to Bruce, “is it normal to share mostly naked pictures of a third party with your friends in America?”

Bruce shakes his head, “no, they’re just weird.”

“I maintain my innocence,” Tony says, earning a smack from Natasha.

“Movies did not prepare me for this,” T’Challa says, shaking his head.

“To be fair everything I’ve learned about Africa as a whole is that you’re all very poor, so I mean movies didn’t prepare me either,” Tony points out.

T’Challa looks irritated, “I could buy your entire worth ten times over, let’s get that clear,” he says and yeah alright, that was fair.

“That’s… that’s a lot of money,” he says, frowning.

“Prince of Wakanda, Tony,” Bruce points out.

“Wait, he’s _that_ T’Challa?” Tony asks, feeling as if he was missing something here.

“How many T’Challa’s do you know?” T’Challa asks, squinting at Tony in question. Okay, that was fair too.

“Tony’s stupidity is my new Snapchat story,” Natasha says, cackling as she ran from the lab.

Aww.

*

Rhodey looks like he wants to die of second hand embarrassment on Tony’s behalf and yeah, Tony too. He somehow missed that his fake soul mate is the _prince of Wakanda_. Oh he was like triple fucked now. “Please tell me you did not say that Africa bit to his face,” Rhodey says, hand pressed together in front his face like he was contemplating whether or not to smack Tony for his stupidity.

“I’m sorry to disappoint, honeybee,” Tony says, shrugging. He was embarrassing and he should really learn to keep his mouth shut.

Rhodey lets out a long sigh but ultimately this was Typical Tony so they don’t bother to cover all the same bases, they both knew, and they also both knew Tony’s dumb ass was bound to do this again. “You told the prince of Wakanda, to his _face_ , that his entire continent was poor?” he asks slowly, like he was trying and failing to map out Tony’s stupidity.

“Okay, I said in a way that indicated that I knew that Africa as a whole is not poor. I know that Africa is not defined by poverty, thanks. But speaking of that prince bit that leads to embarrassing moment number two-” he starts but Rhodey cuts him off.

“Please tell me you knew he was the prince of Wakanda,” Rhodey says, sounding pained on Tony’s behalf.

“Well at least I’m living up to being the family disappointment this week, I may have even exceeded my monthly quota. Rhodes, I fucking fooled the _prince of Wakanda_ , I’m going to die,” he says urgently, flapping his arms around.

Rhodey’s a fucking traitor because he just starts laughing, “oh _man_ when you fuck up you _fuck up_ , don’t you? Look man, just tell him the truth so he can go find the right Anthony.”

“I can’t just _tell the truth_ , I kinda like T’Challa,” he says. It was selfish but the other Anthony could go fuck themselves. T’Challa was smart, and good company, and he was sassy sometimes and Tony _loved_ sass. Sass was what bonded him to all his friends, who were all Sass Masters, especially Sam. Pair him with Bucky and they could win the sass Olympics. He didn’t want to give it up because he was the wrong Anthony, he liked Meatloaf too, the cat was cute and made Bruce sneeze.

“Get your lily white ass over to T’Challa’s place and tell him that you fucked up before this goes any further, honestly, I should not have to advise you not to _fool princes_.” Okay, so maybe Rhodey had a point but how was Tony supposed to broach this subject? Like whops I kind of lied about being your soul mate but not really but also yes? He was sure that would go over wonderfully. “Get moving, Stark,” Rhodey says, grabbing a rolled up newspaper and smacking him with it.

Eventually Rhodey manages to get him out the door and he refuses to let Tony back in so he had little choice but to go find T’Challa.

*

The woman who opens the door is so fucking scary Tony almost runs away and he would have taken pride in that because he was about to _die_. But unfortunately for him T’Challa chooses to rescue him before his very frightening bodyguard successfully eats him. “I dislike you,” she says but steps aside so he can go into the apartment. He skitters past her, jumping when she shifts toward him some. “Perhaps he does have some common sense,” she says and walks off with a confident air. _Yikes_. Turns out he shouldn’t have worried about _T’Challa_ being displeased with this whole… thing.

“I’m sure you’ll be fine,” T’Challa says, inspiring oodles of confidence.

“I lied,” Tony blurts before this gets any worse.

T’Challa raises an eyebrow, “about?” he asks.

“It’s a tattoo,” Tony says, lifting his wrist to demonstrate what he was talking about.

“I’m aware of what a soul mark is, Tony,” T’Challa says, irritation just showing in his tone of voice. Great, the poor guy thought Tony was insulting his intelligence.

“No, no, I know you know what a soul mark is but this isn’t a soul mark. It’s a tattoo, I got it when I was seventeen because I was tired of people asking who my soul mate was because I don’t have one because I _can’t_ have one,” he says in a rush.

T’Challa tilts his head to the side and Tony prays he doesn’t call that woman back to maim him because he would be totally helpless. He can’t even defend himself against the shower curtain most days. “Seventeen?” he asks.

“I… yeah?” His voice rises at the end, which is stupid because this wasn’t a question it was a statement but okay.

“Funny, my soul mark didn’t appear until I was seventeen,” he says and alright, Tony hadn’t been expecting that, “though I am curious as to why you think you can’t have a soul mate, everyone has a soul mate.”

“Not aromantic people, and I’m like hella aromantic. Like _super_ aromantic, like no romantic attraction _at all_ , nope, none, nada, zip, zero, nothing, sometimes we’re talking _negatives_ here. So no soul mates for me,” he says. That felt surprisingly good to get off his chest. “Yeah, alright, so you might want to go find the right Anthony because I am not the Anthony for you. Sorry. Actually I kind of suck as a person so you sort of dodged a bullet so I’m not sorry you have someone less shitty out there for you. You’re actually pretty great, and smart, god I love people who can actually keep up with what I’m saying. I mean I love my friends but they don’t really do the science thing minus Bruce so- actually I’m just going to shut up now,” he says, cutting himself off abruptly.

“ _What_?” T’Challa asks and great, _now_ he looked offended.

“Uhh,” Tony says intelligently.

“Who ever taught you it was okay to talk about yourself like that? And that does being aromantic have to do with soul mates? I assure you you are the correct Anthony, Meatloaf would have known if you were not,” T’Challa says with far too much confidence.

Tony squints, “you’re putting your faith in a feline you named after a meat dish?” he asks in a disbelieving tone. It takes a second for the rest to process but right, T’Challa asked more than one question. “And soul mates are a romantic thing, I don’t do the romantic thing, so no soul mates for me. And I’m cool with that, I can do without, never did like that ‘other half’ thing anyways. I’m not broken because I’m not in a relationship.” He purposely leaves out the answer to T’Challa’s first question because the poor guy didn’t need a lesson in Stark family drama. The guy was a prince; he had better shit to worry about. Like a whole country.

T’Challa pinches the bridge of his nose, “I forget the emphasis on only romantic soul mates here. That does not exist in my culture, we acknowledge that human connection and experience is far more nuanced than what your culture allows for. You would think I would remember that with all the time I spent in Oxford but-” he shakes his head- “sometimes I find it difficult to transition back after time spent at home. Your being aromantic means nothing to me, except to tell me our bond must not be romantic.”

Tony opens his mouth for a moment and closes it because that wasn’t what he’d been expecting and Wakanda needed to pay a visit America to tell them to get their shit together with the soul bond thing. Clearly they knew what was up. “I… that… I still literally Googled unpopular American names and got some random tattoo, I still can’t possibly be your soul mate. Also all cats like me so Meatloaf has been fooled by my good looks and charm.”

“Cats are not fools, Tony, they do not like those who are not worthy of their love. Interesting that Meatloaf has more faith in you than you do. Now, why T’Challa? You could have tattooed any name, any language; even a dead language and you chose _T’Challa_. Why?” T’Challa looks interested too but Tony’s answer fucking sucked.

“I thought it sounded cool,” he says, somewhat embarrassed by that.

“How so?”

Tony sighs because T’Challa was persistent and Tony didn’t know why when he straight up pulled a name from thin air that just happened to belong to the Wakandan prince. “I… I don’t know, it sounded regal I guess, noble. _T’Challa_. I like the way it flows, it sounds nice, and it looks nice written down. I don’t really see how this is relevant,” he says.

“You were drawn to the name for a reason, you chose it with a purpose. You were told you had no soul mate and so you made your own bond, on your own terms, with a name _you_ chose.” T’Challa looks impressed but Tony isn’t convinced.

“I just got a tattoo, I don’t really think that means anything. I mean it’s nice that you do but it’s just not logical, soul mates don’t work like that,” he says logically.

T’Challa sighs, “I know that you are a man of science, so am I, but there are things that are beyond the realm of human understanding. You are trying to apply logic where there is none and you’ll drive yourself insane in your endeavors. You say you got that tattoo when you were seventeen, I got my soul mark when I was seventeen, when you chose to accept that you had a soul mate.”

“You sound like a fucking fortune cookie,” Tony says, resorting back to jokes because that’s what he did when he didn’t understand something. It was just _easier_.

“Fine. Consider names that change, there’s been plenty of American scholarship on it; I know you know about it. The names change, according to research, because circumstances change, people die, relationships fail. If circumstances change and soul mates with them then why is it so unbelievable to you that our particular bond was a result of unusual circumstance?” he asks. It isn’t illogical; at least as far as current science goes, but it still didn’t settle things quite right for him.

“People don’t choose soul mates, that doesn’t happen.” It was a bad argument but it was all he currently had.

“Don’t they? Most of the circumstances around names changing are two people with different names meeting, falling in love, and the names change to each other’s. That would constitute as choosing one’s soul mate, yes?” he asks, eyebrow lifted in question. Which, yes, he guessed, but that… that wasn’t this.

“But I got a name tattooed, that isn’t the same,” he says lamely.

“Maybe not, but my point still stands. If people can meet and change their fate what’s to say that people can’t change their fate of their own purposeful violation? I had no mark until you chose to tattoo my name, presumably because you thought we would have had no future, or that I would assume we had no future. Until you decided we did,” he says.

“I didn’t think we had some sort of future, I just got a tattoo, you’re reading too much into this,” Tony says. His brain hurt because T’Challa’s arguments were better than his.

“Really? You got a soul mark tattoo because you didn’t want to fit in to the narrative you’ve been fed so badly that you were willing to forge your own path? The tattoo seems a bit pointless then, because if you really believed that you had no soul mate and you were fine with that than you would have never bothered with the mark. Is this really about your disbelief in soul marks or is this about your inability to accept that perhaps your soul mate might actually care?” he asks, cutting to the heart of the issue uncomfortably quick.

“I’m a narcissist, honey, I don’t think self love is an issue,” he quips, back to the jokes to hide his problems. It’s worked so far.

T’Challa, of course, is smarter than that. “People think narcissism arises out of vanity and maybe that’s true for some, but not for you is it? Vanity may be what people see but I see isolation and when you’re that isolated the only one to love you is yourself. Don’t shake your head at me, Tony; you wouldn’t look so uncomfortable if that statement wasn’t true.”

“Where are you even _drawing_ that conclusion?” he asks because _no one_ , therapists included, has ever come to that conclusion. And it was uncomfortably true.

“They say you know when you meet your soul mate but I didn’t have to meet you to know. Something about you always drew my attention and until recently I had no idea why, I’m sure you can imagine that you are not my type. Wild and reckless, I had no need for that as a future king. But then the soul mark appeared and I had a feeling so I started paying more attention, things are rarely as black and white as they seem. It didn’t take long to note the patterns, and to note that when your support system grew wider than your childhood friend and your assistant your risk taking was reduced significantly. You wanted attention and when you got it you were… calmer I suppose. No less reckless and stupid, but no longer so selfish about it,” T’Challa says.

And yeah, yeah that was true. Even he had noticed a sharp shift in his behavior but he hadn’t known why. So had his therapist but he made sure to drive that one up the wall like he had with the rest and eventually they quit, just like all the rest but that was what he wanted anyways so he had no idea why he was so disappointed. “Yeah, I guess,” he says to fill the silence; it had been too long since T’Challa’s eloquent speech. “I didn’t even realize you were the prince of Wakanda, I must look like an idiot compared your super wise ways.” And back to the jokes, familiar territory.

T’Challa laughs, “yes that was rather… that was not intelligent, I’m sorry. I am the only T’Challa currently enrolled in our university, I checked,” he says.

Tony laughs because of course he was, “god that’s so bad. You’re like all wise man over there and I don’t even know who are, I just got a tattoo because I thought your name sounded cool.” They remain silent for a moment before they both start laughing.

“Oh my sister will find this very amusing, she’s been making jokes about you being my soul mate since the first time I saw your name splashed all over the latest tabloids and rolled my eyes,” T’Challa says.

“Well, something tells me I’ll be giving her plenty of material to work with in the future so,” Tony shrugs.

T’Challa laughs, “well, I suppose you’ll ensure I’ll never have a dull moment.”

“True, last summer we celebrated Steve’s birthday, the fourth of July because he was _born_ patriotic, and we all got lost in like seven different countries. We started in America,” he says. Natasha had not been pleased with the Canadian north but Sam and Bucky made the best out of Italy.

T’Challa looks pained for a moment before he shakes his head, “oh I am sure Shuri will have plenty to say about this. I do have a reputation though, so if you could _refrain_ from drunken international adventures I would be grateful,” he says.

“No promises,” Tony chirps but he wouldn’t be an ass. He wasn’t going to ruin T’Challa’s reputation with his antics and risk an entire country of people feeling the effects of something he did when he was drunk one time. That was horrible.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The thrilling conclusion!

Tony is wrapped up in a blanket with a bottle of Wakandan beer staring wide-eyed at the TV screen that was currently displaying some Wakandan horror flick. Tony had no fucking clue what they were saying, or even what language that was and he wasn’t reading the subtitles. This shit was scary enough without having full context, thank you. Besides, terror was a universal language and Tony didn’t need full context to know that dude was _fucking insane_.

T’Challa looks amused by Tony’s reactions and he resents that, really. But he was fine, it wasn’t like he’s never seen a horror movie, Clint and Nat were fond and then when Bucky decided to transfer to their university to be closer to Steve he joined in on their horror-loving ways. Tony and Sam had bonded over their mutual hatred of horror while clinging to each other scared and ignoring their asshole friends snapping pictures.

His friends had had a heyday with all his slip-ups with T’Challa, who was nowhere near as forgiving as Rhodey, and now had an entire Instagram account dedicated to all of T’Challa’s eye rolls. Now Tony was getting a good dose of Wakandan culture and he really could have went without the horror. Sam wasn’t even there to shriek louder than him and therefore get teased more. “Are you alright?” T’Challa asks, eyebrow raised in question.

Tony wrinkles his nose, “I’m fine,” he lies. He was not fine; he wasn’t going to sleep for a week after this fucking scary ass movie.

“You could have mentioned that you are not fond of horror,” T’Challa says. It was meant to be comforting, Tony was sure, but he was no chicken, he’d stick it out and suffer with being sleep deprived for the next eighty years.

“I don’t mind horror,” he lies. He was not going to be known as _that guy_ who didn’t like horror and honestly he was totally fine. He wasn’t going to sleep for the next week but that was fine, he practically did that anyways.

“Tony you have been shrinking further into that blanket with every passing minute, it’s fine if you dislike horror,” T’Challa says and bless him because he actually meant it.

“I love horror,” Tony says in such a weak tone that he didn’t even believe himself.

“If you insist,” T’Challa says, shaking his head at Tony’s refusal to admit that he hated horror. It takes five more minutes for a jump scare to rear its ugly head and Tony shrieks, throwing his hands up and the beer with it. T’Challa catches the bottle with his cat-like reflexes and gives Tony the side eye for his efforts. T’Challa’s scary lady body guard also makes an appearance but her side eye is significantly scarier than T’Challa’s.

“No more horror for you,” T’Challa decides. That was probably for the best.

*

“We should go cliff diving!” Tony says excitedly.

Rhodey looks at him like he’s nuts but T’Challa speaks up first, “I like that idea,” he says and smiles at Tony.

“Ha! You can keep your ‘why do white people wanna die so bad’ comments to yourself, Rhodes, because T’Challa isn’t white,” Tony says smugly.

“We cliff dive in Wakanda all the time, I see no problem with it,” T’Challa says and Tony is more smug than before.

“You know what, if you want him to die you’ll follow through on this,” Rhodey warns.

“I’m sure he’ll be fine,” T’Challa says.

*

T’Challa regretted the cliff diving suggestion near immediately. He assumed, for whatever reason, that Tony was not an idiot. The rest of his friends, they were level headed and rational but Tony, he was only rational about science. He knew nothing of logic when considering emotions and T’Challa probably should have taken that into account before deciding that he knew better than Rhodes. There must have been a reason that Rhodes, the man who knew Tony best, would oppose to this expedition. Pepper had not agreed with this being a good idea either and when Natasha and Sam had immediately exchanged looks and excitedly announced that they were not going to miss this he should have known.

Perhaps he had too much faith in Tony. He decides that he absolutely had too much faith in Tony when Tony flings himself off a cliff without even looking where he was going. He lets out a sting of expletives in his native language and he turns to Rhodey, who was giving him an ‘I told you so’ look. “He didn’t even look!” he says, sounding a bit panicked.

“Of course he didn’t, he’s Tony Stark the Invincible, why would he look?” Rhodey asks, rolling his eyes.

“He could be dead!” T’Challa says, staring at the edge of the cliff Tony just flung himself off of. Sam and Natasha are perched at the edge looking over, holding onto one another for balance. T’Challa would not trust Natasha not to shove him over the edge but if Sam was willing to trust the plucky redhead that was his problem.

“Don’t worry, he’s swimming around looking pretty pleased with himself,” Natasha informs him.

“Good, I will kill him myself,” T’Challa says, preparing to go pull Tony out of that river and let him know exactly how stupid this was.

*

T’Challa at least wasn’t upset with him anymore and Tony was thankful for it, he had grown pretty attached without realizing it. That, of course, meant that despite T’Challa not being upset with him he was doing his damndest to avoid the man. When people started caring about him bad things happened. Rhodey got arrested, Pepper almost died, Bucky lost an arm, he could go on but he didn’t much want to dwell on all his shortcomings as a person. There was too much to even narrow it down a little.

That didn’t mean T’Challa took his being pushed away very well because he did not. It wasn’t that he didn’t give Tony space, he did, but he also went out of his way to talk to Tony whenever they were in the same area. For the first time since the beginning of the year he disliked sharing a lab with T’Challa. Usually he was happy to bounce ideas off of him because he thought in totally different patterns than Tony did, partially because he had grown up in another culture and partially because his personality was so different than Tony’s. Now, though, he was worried that T’Challa would realize he was so much better than Tony because he totally was and Tony didn’t want to be left behind. So he decided if anyone was walking away it was going to be him.

He doesn’t anticipate the knock on the door though. He had been feeling antsy all day but he had attributed that to the loss of sleep he’s been dealing with. He might make pushing people away look like the easiest thing in the world, second nature even, but it wasn’t. It hurt like hell to push people away the way he did but it was better for them that way, all being around him ever got anyone was hurt and he didn’t want T’Challa to get hurt because of him. But he wasn’t ready to outright abandon him either so that’s why he opens the door to his penthouse, because he was a selfish man who had a hard time letting go.

Tony notices that something is off immediately because T’Challa looks… off somehow. No less regal and put together but he looks… smaller maybe, like the usual air of confidence around him had dissipated some. Tony moves aside so T’Challa could come in. He’s surprised when T’Challa pulls him into a hug but Tony wraps his arms around T’Challa’s shoulders, sensing that he needed the comfort. Usually he was lost on emotions and people liked to use that as evidence that he was a narcissistic ass but in actuality he just had a hard time seeing past how fast his brain was moving. It was hard to pay attention to people’s body language and tone of voice at all times when he was thinking through the design of some new project but the new projects never really stop. So the fact that he seemed to sense what T’Challa needed was odd considering the only time he was ever fully present to read body language and understand it was during sex.

“What’s going on?” Tony asks softly.

“My father,” T’Challa says in a low voice, “someone tried to kill him last night. I only just got the news because of the time difference. Shuri must be in shock to consider my sleep important in this situation. My plane leaves in four hours and… I didn’t know where to go. I know you seem to be upset with something that I’ve done but please,” T’Challa whispers and Tony has to look away and blink rapidly to keep from crying. Of course this would happen, he’d push someone away just in time for them to need him when they really should get better friends.

But now wasn’t the time to worry about that. “Follow me,” he says quietly, shutting the door and heading to the kitchen to make tea, loose leaf because T’Challa was a tea snob. Probably because he spent all that time at Oxford. He finds out that T’Chaka was alive at least, and that the man fought his own attacker off. Tony wanted to meet the guy now because he sounded like a total badass. Really, what kind of king was capable of nearly offing the guy who nearly offed him? A badass one and Tony wanted to know more. He supposes that’s why he doesn’t mind that T’Challa seems to be grieving via stories about his father. It helped that the stories were interesting and that Tony gathered a lot of knowledge about T’Challa himself.

Like the fact that he had been a very reckless child, that his sister had been the more responsible one until recently. Apparently their relationship had been strained because she felt she was more fit for leadership than T’Challa, which he freely admitted was true at least at that time. But T’Challa grew out of his recklessness and began to learn science, politics, and he started developing better leadership skills. Shuri had been jealous of that too for a time but she started to grow up too and now the siblings were on good terms, even if that was initially because of their mutual hatred for their stepsibling Hunter. Tony had never heard T’Challa swear before but apparently Hunter was an ‘absolute asshole’ and a few other choice words.

When it comes time for T’Challa to go Tony doesn’t really want him to because he had missed their hangouts more than he thought he did but he keeps his mouth shut. This wasn’t the time to be selfish. He doesn’t expect T’Challa to ask him to go to Wakanda with him, mostly because he didn’t think he’d even be allowed in but also because he’s been an ass lately. He doesn’t even think about it, he goes.

*

“Why have you been so distant lately?” T’Challa asks after they have been in the air for some time.

Tony doesn’t know how to answer that at first and T’Challa lets his gather his thoughts. Tony’s grateful for that because he rarely got time to think before people were pressing harder for answers. T’Challa seemed to know that he needed time to find the words for his feelings and he was grateful for that. “I… you deserve more than what I have to offer,” he says finally even though that wasn’t quite right, not really. It was all he could put to words at the moment though.

T’Challa sighs, “Tony, we have been over this. I do not think that you are somehow lesser or unworthy. I am aware that you have flaws and I am more than willing to work with you,” he says firmly, leaving little room for Tony to not believe his words. He doesn’t believe them anyways because he didn’t deserve someone as amazing as T’Challa.

“T’Challa my personality is like ninety percent flaw, you shouldn’t have to deal with that. No one should,” he says almost bitterly. Just because he deserved to be alone didn’t mean he wanted to be, he’s always been an extroverted person so people were integral to him feeling nice but he also tended to fuck those people over whether he meant to or not.

“Working with you doesn’t mean accepting harmful behaviors of yours, it means that I am prepared to help you move past those behaviors. And truthfully most of them are harmful to you, other just happen to get in the way,” he says. Tony shakes his head because that isn’t true and T’Challa knew it, he was just trying to be nice. “Do not shake your head at me, I am not a moron. You may not have much talent at recognizing behaviors but I am something of an expert. I know full well that when things go wrong for others in your life because of you it was for two reasons. One, you wanted to help and had no idea how, so it went wrong, or two, you wanted to hurt yourself but someone else got in the way. In both instances your over-developed sense of guilt leads you to dwell too long on your problems and instead of fixing them you try to do some other absurd thing to hurt yourself and someone else gets caught in your own emotions. It’s a never ending cycle and I like to hope I can help you break it,” he says earnestly.

Tony curls in on himself a little because he didn’t deserve this, probably never would. T’Challa’s father almost died not even a day ago and here T’Challa was comforting Tony as if it was _his_ emotions that mattered. “Spit it out, Stark,” T’Challa says after a few beats. He considers on not saying anything but T’Challa wasn’t a fool, he would know that Tony could verbalize his feelings on this just fine, he just wasn’t because he didn’t want to. How he knew the difference between Tony needing time to find the words and already having them he had no idea.

“I am not the one who needs comforting here, it isn’t my parent who almost died less than a day ago,” he says finally. T’Challa looks almost irritated and he should, Tony had no business receiving comfort when T’Challa was clearly the one in more pain.

“You’ve already comforted me, Tony, I feel better and that’s why I asked about you. Because right now I can handle whatever it is that has been affecting you when I couldn’t a few hours ago. Stop shaking your head at me, Tony; I know what I’m feeling better than you do. Besides, something happening in my life does not stop things from happening to you. And frankly I could use the distraction,” he admits somewhat reluctantly and that, at least, Tony understood. Except his own distractions tended to have a lot more alcohol, sex, or lack of sleep. At least he stopped feeling things at some point and that was the purpose, was it not?

“I don’t really know what I did to comfort you but alright,” he says when it became clear T’Challa was expecting a response.

He sighs, “sometimes you don’t have to do anything but listen and you did that. And you made me tea, even if you did horrible job,” he says, smiling just a bit.

“Tea snob,” he mumbles and T’Challa laughs.

“I did spend a fair amount of time in Britain, they do love their tea,” T’Challa points out. Tony snorts and shakes his head; of course T’Challa would pick _that_ up of all the British habits he could have picked up. They spend the rest of their flight with a blanket wrapped around them sleeping and taking comfort in the other’s presence.

*

Wakanda is _beautiful_. Tony has travelled to a lot of places over the years but none were even remotely as stunning as Wakanda. The only downside was that he has never been more aware of how freakishly pale he was. Rhodey made jokes about being one of two and a half black guys in their school at any one time and Tony hadn’t paid much attention because he didn’t notice. It was a lot more noticeable when he was the odd guy out. “Are you alright?” T’Challa asks, concerned.

“Have I always been this white?” he asks and T’Challa throws his head back and laughs, _genuinely_ laughs and Tony thinks this is the first time he’s heard T’Challa really laugh. Odd timing, maybe, but he wasn’t going to complain.

“Yes, you have always been this white,” T’Challa says.

*

Tony stares up at the statue and he _swore_ he could feel it breathing, he almost thought he could hear it growling too but it must be a trick of the imagination. Panther statues, regardless of how stunning, do not growl. Or breathe. The statue was fantastic though, and whatever material it was made of it appeared to be solid. That was impressive and the engineer in Tony wanted to figure it out. The air was quiet, misty, and maybe that’s what added to the statue’s almost life-like qualities. It was Tony’s own overactive imagination he was sure.

“You’re awake early,” someone says from behind him, making him jump in surprise. He half turns to find none other than King T’Chaka behind him, walking closer with what seemed to be minimal difficulties. Tony was impressed with this too because he had been under strict orders to remain in bed. Tony would wander too, being in bed sucked and he had far too much energy for that.

“I didn’t sleep,” he says because he hadn’t. T’Chaka raises an eyebrow in question- a family trait then. “I have insomnia and I slept on the plane,” he explains.

“That was yesterday, do you not have jetleg?” he asks.

“Doesn’t ever seem to affect me if I do. But my sleep schedule is normally pretty screwed up so for all I know I didn’t even mess things up.” His sleep schedule was more like passing out in the lab for the third time that week and being found in the morning by T’Challa or Bruce and being covered with a blanket while Meatloaf cuddles up to him for warmth.

T’Chaka doesn’t say anything more; he just stands beside Tony looking at the creepy giant panther statue. On the plus side there were _so many_ cats here and Ton loved cats. There was always a new one to pet and that was exciting. “T’Challa speaks highly of you,” T’Chaka says after a few minutes of silence.

“T’Challa is too nice,” he says. Too forgiving as well, even if Tony secretly liked that trait. It worked in his favor even if he still thought T’Challa deserved better.

“I agree. You’re a liability,” T’Chaka says bluntly.

Tony nods, “I know. I know T’Challa wouldn’t like it much but if you need me to cut ties I will. He’s going to end up running a country some day, hopefully later rather than sooner, and the last thing he needs to worry about is whatever shit I’ve gotten myself into this week,” he says. It would hurt like hell but he’d do it.

“You would give up your soul mate for Wakanda?” T’Chaka asks, surprised.

“My own wants and needs do nor come before an entire country of people, no matter the circumstances. I’m one man, if I suffer it doesn’t really matter, not if it means an entire country thrives,” he says. He and T’Chaka fall back into a comfortable silence for a while and he enjoys it, even if he knows he has to go. It was nice in the meantime and that’s what he chose to focus on. Eventually T’Chaka tires or something because he leaves, squeezing Tony’s shoulder lightly as he goes.

Tony must be more awake or something because he swears that panther statue isn’t growling anymore or maybe that was because the fog had lifted some. Eventually he goes back inside to find T’Challa and say his goodbyes.

*

T’Challa looks surprised when Tony finds him, “I have no idea what you said to my father but he approves of you when he did not before,” he says.

Tony’s eyebrows shoot up, “what?” he asks somewhat dumbly.

“He says that you display good leadership skills, that you’re something of a diamond in the rough. If very, _very_ rough, but he approves nonetheless. What did you say to him?” T’Challa asks.

“I… he told me I was a liability and I agreed,” Tony pauses when T’Challa’s jaw clenches, clearly indicating the king had already given his son his opinion on Tony and that T’Challa seemed to disagree with the truth. “I told him that if I had to go I would, that I wasn’t more important than Wakanda, that I never would be.”

T’Challa smiles wide and draws Tony into a hug, “I love you,” he says and Tony clings to him. He returns the phrase somewhat reluctantly but only because those had been the last words to his parents as they left for that fucking party and he hadn’t even meant them. He had been being a sarcastic asshole and it had sort of forever tainted the phrase for him. T’Challa doesn’t say anything even though Tony knows he noticed. Tony’s grateful.

*

Later on Tony finds a fluffy white cat that T’Challa says is the ugliest cat he had ever seen in his life. It had a squished in face, eyes that looked in opposite directions, a crooked tail with inexplicably charred fur on the end of it and a bum back leg but Tony loved it. He names it Moonbeam just because it made T’Challa cringe every time he heard it. But T’Challa named his cat Meatloaf so he had no room to talk about bad pet names.

He also promises to take Tony cliff diving if he promises to look where he’s going. Tony tells him that there were no promises but he’d listen to whatever T’Challa told him to do just to ease the poor man’s heart. Shuri decides she also wants to come along on the expedition, which T’Challa seemed reluctant about but he lets her go. Tony finds out why T’Challa was so reluctant when Shuri uses his own curiosity against him and shoves him off the cliff when he gets too close to the edge to check out the view.

At least T’Challa was very unimpressed with this and he goes to save Tony from his sister’s antics, even if Tony didn’t actually need saving. When they get back to the top of the cliff Tony looks like an angry wet rat and Shuri is laughing her ass off. T’Challa reams her out but in his native tongue so unfortunately he has no idea what he was saying, just that Shuri only laughs harder. If Tony wasn’t terrified of the scary ass lady body guards that lingered always he’d repay Shuri the favor but he did, contrary to popular belief, have some self-preservation.

**Author's Note:**

> [My writing Tumblr](https://tenspencerriedplease.tumblr.com/)


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